Trek Continues Inc is a nonprofit corporation organized for exclusively charitable, scientific, literary, artistic, and educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. These purposes shall include the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. However, the following is a more thorough explanation:
- To promote scientific education for people of all ages through the Star Trek television series. The Original Series (TOS) — from 1966-1969 — produced considerable public interest in science, resulting in a marked increase in science and engineering training.
For example, the Star Trek “communicator” is universally credited as spawning the popularity of portable phones, thereby sparking the formation of the cellular phone industry. (There are numerous other examples. The “transporter” has resulted in research into quantum teleportation of information and subatomic particles; entangled particles have been cited as a potential method for the instantaneous communication across the galaxy depicted in the series; and, finally, “warp drive“ has been demonstrated to be a mathematically viable possibility.) The promotion of science will be accomplished via:
- Webpages with interviews and videos of scientists relating their careers to Star Trek.
- The production of new episodes for free Internet viewing (STAR TREK CONTINUES or STC), which shall be intended to spark interest in younger people who did not enjoy the opportunity to view TOS when first broadcast, nor during the decades in which it was televised in syndication. Since some of the new stories are in fact continuations of particular TOS scripts, younger people may find themselves wanting to “catch up” by watching the original 79 episodes of Star Trek.
- To promote literature and the arts by producing new STC episodes modeled upon TOS. Unlike any program prior, STC releases its scripts (complete with camera angles, direction, etc.) to donors.
Countless members of the public have never read a genuine television script, and STC provides them with the opportunity to study TV writing and production. Not satisfied simply to promote scientific education, the new episodes will also promote literary and artistic education. In addition, STC produces videos of the cast and crew explaining the production, acting, and editing process.
- To promote human rights and the general unity of mankind, and to fight discrimination and stereotypes.
TOS was the first network television program to feature an extensive multiracial cast, as well as pervasive themes such as equality and respect for different cultures and points-of-view. STC duplicates the multiracial bridge crew with a new multiracial cast. In addition to the programs’s four regular male characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott), STC has added a new central character: a female ship’s counselor, from whom the captain often seeks advice. It is STC’s hope that this may diminish the unfortunate societal stigma against mental health treatment. Similarly, conn officers Sulu and Chekov alternate shifts with a female — as might happen on a naval vessel even today — and Kirk receives frequent orders from a woman commodore. And, in addition to chief communications officer Uhura from TOS, the ship’s relief communicator is played by an actual professor of radiology with over 50 published scientific papers… a medical doctor who is already a real-life role model in her own right. In general, as on TOS, the new series emphasizes human (and alien) rights, and portrays the elimination of prejudice by the 23rd century.
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